Bobby, Robert, Pauline & Co
by Belphegor
Summary: Let's assume that our Heroes had children after the war. What would the kids be like? This is one possible version.


**Author's note**: I seriously have no idea where that came from. The idea probably came from the Papa Bear Awards 2012 mission briefing, and it started as a little vignette (I have a handful of them, mostly 'experiments' – character studies, pieces of dialogue …) because I wondered what kind of kids the Heroes would have, and then they sprang one by one from a mix of imagination and memories, and now there they are. I tried to make each of them a character in their own right while keeping the descriptions to a minimum and taking care _not_ to make them copies of their dads. It's rather different from what I'm used to write, so I'd really like your opinion. Maybe one day I'll take on the mums, but I doubt it. Not with the big bad old Mary Sue cloud of doom looming :o)

It starts with the eldest and goes all the way to the youngest kid, by the way.

As usual, thanks a lot to Emily for beta and comments!

_Disclaimer: I own the kids' names, personalities, and interactions. The rest belongs to CBS and Bing Crosby, may he rest in peace – and not roll in his grave too much knowing we borrow his characters for fiction writing purposes)._

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><p><strong>Bobby, Robert, Pauline &amp; Co.<strong>

_**Pauline LeBeau**_

Pauline is the eldest of their little group, exactly two months and four days older than Tony Kinchloe, and she doesn't let anyone forget that detail. Her brother Robert says she's bossy; their maman says she's got a lot of personality. It wouldn't be such a bad thing if Elise wasn't so little, because when they play musketeers, Robert always ends up as a Cardinal's guard (and everybody knows they're the villains), and when they play cowboys and Indians, somehow the Indians always win. She has her father's dark eyes, but the way she's growing she'll be taller than him soon.

For all her self-confidence, Pauline has a not-so-secret secret crush on her uncle Rob since he visited the family on her sixth birthday; when he asked her about the wish she'd made when she blew out the candles, she'd turned beet-red and blurted out that she wished she could marry him when she grew up. Her papa had rolled his eyes and muttered something that made Maman swat him on the arm, her brother and cousins had sniggered, and her uncle Peter had roared with laughter; Uncle Rob had smiled and said that little girls didn't marry their uncles, and anyway when she was a grown-up, he'd be very, very old. Now that she's almost grown (eleven is so much older than six), Pauline doesn't want to marry Uncle Rob anymore, but she can't help thinking that he's very dashing – she found the word in one of her father's English dictionaries, and she underlined it, because it reminds her of her favourite uncle.

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><p><em><strong>Anthony Robert 'Tony' Kinchloe<strong>_

One trait Tony inherited from his father is an unfailing equanimity and a quiet, natural strength that keeps the bullies at school well at bay even though he wears glasses. Like his twin sisters, he speaks French and German in addition to English, and as a result whenever they travel overseas to see their white cousins, conversations are a cheerfully messy mix of English and French that sometimes even the adults have trouble understanding. He's still unsure about his accent when he speaks French, but Robert LeBeau says it's pretty good, and that his sister thinks it's adorable (but Tony must swear never to mention that, because otherwise Pauline will kill him).

Now that he's eleven and he can stay up a little later, he loves sitting on the couch while his uncles talk, especially when they think he can't hear them; the stories they tell sound so much better than the movies he goes to. Sometimes they laugh, and sometimes they go real quiet, and Tony has to let his imagination fill the blanks left by the words they don't say. He doesn't find it very hard. Maybe that's why he wants to be a writer when he grows up.

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><p><em><strong>Tom Carter<strong>_

Tom has his mother's red curls and freckles and his father's big grey eyes and crooked smile. He's a bit absent-minded, so he tends to write notes to himself and leave them everywhere, on the walls of his room, on the fridge, in the car, and even in the bathroom. Often these notes are reminders of things that need doing, but sometimes they're thoughts that he found funny, or memories he doesn't want to forget, or ideas that occurred to him that he might work on later. So for his ninth birthday, his dad gives him a big book with blank pages and a stick of glue, to gather these notes and keep them safe. The first note he puts in the book is 'Remember to hug mom and dad at least once a day'.

He doesn't see his overseas family a lot, but when he goes to England, Bobby and Jack take him for explorations of East End London that take entire afternoons; they have fish and chips, and adventures, and it's a lot of fun, but Tom can't help but feel cold when he sees the ruins of houses and buildings that were destroyed in the war. There's a lot of them, and his English cousins say they used to sneak into some of them for a dare, but they stopped after one of their mates got badly hurt when a beam broke and fell on him. Tom always gets quiet when he sees the empty ruins; he doesn't quite know what he wants to be when he grows up, but he knows he wants to build things, not destroy them.

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><p><em><strong>Robert Louis 'Bobby' Newkirk<strong>_

Bobby is very proud of his two first names, because he's just read _Treasure Island_ and now he wants to be a pirate. It comes as a mild disappointment when he remembers that he was named after Uncle Rob and Uncle Louis; in the end, though, he decides it's all right, because he thinks Uncle Rob would make a great pirate captain, and Uncle Louis makes the best birthday cakes ever anyway. When Jack points out 'Bobby' is not a very good pirate name – unlike Jack's, who shares a first name with Captain Hook from _Peter Pan_ – Bobby chases him around the house until their dad picks both them up by the collar and says he's going to make them walk the plank if they keep that up.

Of all his 'other' cousins – other than his aunt Mavis' children – he sees Pauline, Robert and Elise the most, because America is a lot farther than France. When Tony is around, Bobby is a bit in awe of him, and so he tends to be a lot calmer and better-behaved than he normally is; when Tom comes to visit, it's the opposite, and they are constantly sneaking out and doing forbidden stuff, like getting salt and vinegar crisps when it's almost dinner time. Robert is usually too serious for that, but they like the same books, and a few years later they share the same taste in music. He's a bit wary of Pauline, because she's a girl, and she can be really bossy when she wants to, but on the other hand she lies with such aplomb that she's handy to have around when you're in trouble. He doesn't have much use for Elise; she's too little.

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><p><em><strong>Robert Pierre LeBeau<strong>_

Robert is a quiet, thoughtful boy, who watches, listens and thinks a lot. He takes a lot after his papa in looks and stature, and he's the only one so far who has shown interest in cooking. When he can't be found, it's usually either because he's just holed up in his room with a book, or because he's sneaked down to the kitchen of his father's restaurant; there's a tiny spot where he can sit and watch without being in anyone's way, taking notes in his head while orders are shouted and people bustle about.

Unlike his papa, who keeps it all in his head, he's got a number of notebooks in which he jots down instructions, ingredients and quantities, and they're filled with recipes from all over the world: there are French recipes, but also British, American (including Cajun), Italian, Spanish, North African, and even German. His papa makes the best apple strudel, but when Robert is about fifteen, he stops making strudel altogether. When Robert asks him why, he smiles a little and says it reminds him of an old friend who is now dead. Robert says nothing, but works hard to make even better strudel, in memory of the friend whose death made his father so sad.

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><p><em><strong>Andrew James 'Jack' Newkirk<strong>_

Jack has a shock of brown hair and bright blue eyes that are always alight with mischief. He's taller than his older brother, and almost as tall as Tom, who's all skinny legs and elbows. He's the only boy except for Tom who doesn't have 'Robert' as a first or middle name; he jokes about that, saying the other three should form a club and get badges. He jokes and grins and laughs, because life would be deadly boring if everyone was serious all the time, and because he knows that he can get away with a lot by smiling a certain smile – or, failing that, hang his head and look suitably crestfallen. Sometimes his mum falls for it, and for all that his dad does the very same thing he often falls for it, too; his aunt Mavis, though, only needs one look to tell if he's being sincere or not.

The first time he met Robert LeBeau, he looked him up and down – which didn't take very long, he thought with a grin – and said, "You're short." The boy returned his stare and retorted in English, "And you're skinny. But when I grow up I'll be taller." Somehow, this moment marked the beginning of a life-long friendship that grew stronger with planned shenanigans, shared punishments and heated discussions. They see each other often enough; of all Jack's uncles, Louis lives closest, and neither him nor Dad ever misses an occasion to cross the Channel (Mum sometimes says with a smile that those two will end up digging a tunnel under the Channel just to be able to see each other more frequently). The partnership goes both ways: Jack comes to appreciate the value of a quiet, serious input when setting up a prank; and Robert soon finds himself unable to speak English without a Cockney accent.

Jack always remains taller than Robert, though. And skinnier.

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><p><em><strong>Camille and Celia Kinchloe<strong>_

Camille and Celia are twins, but they make a point of showing people they certainly are not interchangeable. They don't dress the same, they have different hairdos, and even their bedclothes have different colour patterns – Camille likes yellow, Celia prefers green. Other than that, each is the person the other spends most of her time with, and they tend to like the same games, the same books, the same movies, but not necessarily the same hobbies. Celia has her own spot in the little garden where she's planted flowers and strawberries; she likes to work with the earth, make things grow, and she wishes they had a bigger garden and a cherry tree. Camille likes to spend time in the attic putting her father's old radio to pieces and back together again, and she loves playing spy and sending imaginary codes that will help the good guys win the war. When she can't sleep and her sister is sleeping in the other bed, she taps messages in Morse for Tony on the other side of the wall, and he answers in the same way. They can go on for hours.

Dad says all their uncles made the trip to see the twins when they were born, and Tony says he remembers, so it must be true; nevertheless, when they're five and they finally meet Uncle Andrew and Uncle Rob for the first time since they can talk, they're a little shy. Camille, the boldest, holds out her hand very seriously; Celia peeks at Uncle Andrew from behind her mother's skirt, and he smiles, and she can't help but smile, too, because he has such a nice smile.

It takes a little more time before they meet their other uncles, and by that time they're grown up enough that even Celia isn't so shy anymore. Uncle Peter has a funny accent, and sometimes he says things that are silly – as Camille remarks, making the adults laugh and hide smiles behind their hand while Uncle Peter looks suitably affronted – but afterwards, he winks and whispers they're right, but it's a secret. Both girls say hello to Uncle Louis in French, and he gives a huge smile and tells them in the same language that they're the most beautiful little American girls he has ever seen, and a lot of other things that they don't really understand because he speaks so fast; but he has a nice voice, so Camille and Celia decide that learning foreign languages is worth the trouble after all.

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><p><em><strong>Elisabeth <em><strong>'Elise'<strong>_ LeBeau**_

Nobody calls her Elisabeth. On a daily basis, she's Elise; her parents often call her Lisou, or Lisette, especially when it's time for one last kiss before she goes to bed. Elise is the baby, the littlest one of the lot, and sometimes her sister, brother and cousins tend to forget she's there. She doesn't mind, as long as she can pick up a book to look at the pictures – she can't read yet – or paper and pencils to draw; she loves colours, and she covers the whole sheet in bright yellow, blue, red, green and purple. She likes to draw people, too, even if Pauline pointed out with the authority of somebody who _knows_ that Papa is _not_ taller than the house, and Elise is much shorter than her. Pauline can say anything she wants; just because she's older or taller doesn't mean she's more right. Besides, when her papa picks her up and she's got her arms around his neck and her head nestled in his shoulder, she knows he's just the right size.

Since she's often on her own when her uncles and cousins visit, she always goes to Uncle Andrew and tugs him by the sleeve until he picks her up and sets her on his lap. She likes it here; he smiles a lot, calls her 'little Lizzie' and pretends to steal her nose. When the adults talk, she snuggles against him and listens to the way his voice sounds in his chest – she doesn't understand all the words they say, but it doesn't matter – and she usually falls asleep, gripping his shirt in tight little fists.

Elise is the only one brave – or reckless – enough to ask her uncle Rob one day why he doesn't have children; he says it's because he flies army planes and he moves houses a lot, and it's no life for kids to move and leave their friends all the time. He says that with a smile, but Elise thinks he looks a little sad.

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><p>Yeah. Try as I may, I just could not imagine Hogan with a kid. Sorry …<p>

I believe the "I got your nose" thing you do with kids might be universal. I got it, my little sister and cousins got it, and I'm pretty sure the next generation will also get it. I guess it's one of those things.

Also, Newkirk and LeBeau might not have started the Chunnel (being fictional characters and all that :P), but frankly, it's nice to imagine they did :D

Hope you liked! :o]


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